Daily Inspiration Quote by Issey Miyake

Miyake is speaking like a designer who’s tired of “sustainability” as a vibe and more interested in sustainability as a method. The first thing he does is demystify reuse: dye it, cut it, swap buttons. These are humble gestures, the kind of domestic, almost improvised alterations that treat clothing as a living object rather than a sealed product. “Make it alive” is the tell. He’s not describing repair as thrift or virtue; he’s describing it as animation, a return to motion and possibility.

Then he pivots: “But this is a new step.” That “but” isn’t rejecting the old tricks; it’s repositioning them as insufficient for the scale of the problem and the scale of fashion’s appetite. When he says “use anything - hats, socks, shirts,” he’s collapsing hierarchy. Couture and basics share the same fate in the waste stream, so they can share the same experimental dignity. The list also signals democratization: everyone owns socks; everyone can participate in the process.

Calling it “the first step” is quietly radical. It frames reuse not as a one-off rescue mission for a beloved garment, but as the opening move of a production pipeline. Miyake is sketching a future where the lifecycle starts with what already exists, where design begins after consumption. In the context of his broader work - technical innovation, pleating, mass-producible ingenuity - the subtext lands: the next frontier isn’t only making new forms, it’s redesigning the very premise of “new.”